7 Best Apple Reminders Alternatives in 2026

The best Apple Reminders alternatives in 2026 are Things 3 for stillness, Todoist for cross-platform, TickTick for habits, OmniFocus for GTD, GoodTask for power users, and Ultra Reminders for AI. The seventh slot is Notion for people who insist on rebuilding everything from scratch every time. We tested every one on macOS 26.1 between February and April 2026.

A confession. The first time I went looking for an Apple Reminders alternative, in 2022, I downloaded 14 apps in a weekend. I used four of them seriously. I paid for two. I'm still using one. The other three are uninstalled. The lesson is: more options just multiply the decision; one clean shortlist saves the weekend. Below is that shortlist.

Quick rankings

Rank	App	Best for	Price	Cross-platform
1	Things 3	Calm, single-person GTD	$49.99 Mac + $9.99 iOS	Apple only
2	Ultra Reminders	AI on top of Apple Reminders	$35 one-time	Mac (syncs to iPhone via Reminders)
3	Todoist	Teams + Windows/Android	$4/mo Pro, free tier	All platforms
4	TickTick	Habits + pomodoro built-in	$35.99/yr	All platforms
5	OmniFocus 4	Deep GTD + perspectives	$74.99 or $99.99/yr	Apple only
6	GoodTask	Apple Reminders power layer	$39.99 one-time	Apple only
7	Notion	If you must build from scratch	Free tier or $10/mo	All platforms

1. Things 3

Best for the person who wants their task app to feel like a Sunday morning, not a sprint. Things 3 is the most thoughtfully designed task app on the Mac, full stop. The keyboard shortcuts feel like furniture. The animations are restrained and meaningful. Capture is fast, organisation makes sense, the Today view is the cleanest in the category.

The catch. It's Apple-only. No Windows, no Android, no web. If your spouse uses Android, you can't share. The pricing model is high-friction: $49.99 on Mac, $9.99 on iOS, $19.99 on iPad. Buy all three or accept partial coverage.

The other catch. Cultured Code (the maker) ships slowly. Things 3 launched in 2017. Things 4 has been "soon" for years. As of May 2026, no public beta. If you need AI features or recent integrations, look elsewhere.

"Things 3 is the only app I open without dread. That's worth $80 to me."

• paraphrased from r/macapps, March 2026

For the head-to-head: Apple Reminders vs Things 3 in 2026.

2. Ultra Reminders

Best for keeping Apple Reminders and adding the missing 20% of capability. Ultra Reminders is a Mac app that sits on top of Apple Reminders, reads from and writes to your existing iCloud account, and adds the features Apple has refused to ship: AI brain-dump triage, real natural language input that strips parsed text, advanced recurrence rules (every Nth day, last business day, nth weekday), multi-level subtasks, and an AI-generated daily plan that runs at 10am.

The thinking is architectural. You don't have to migrate. Your shared lists keep working. Apple Watch keeps working. Siri keeps working. Family Sharing keeps working. The Mac app is the AI layer; iCloud is the database; your iPhone sees everything via the standard Reminders app.

Pricing: $35 one-time. No subscription. 14-day free trial, no credit card required. The on-device LLM (Qwen 3 1.7B) means nothing leaves your Mac.

The catch. Mac-only. There is no Ultra Reminders for iPhone (you use the regular Apple Reminders app there). If you need a Mac-free workflow, this isn't the pick.

For more on this approach: The AI-Native Mac To-Do Stack.

3. Todoist

Best for cross-platform teams and people whose lives don't fit in the Apple ecosystem. Todoist runs on everything: Mac, Windows, Linux (web), iOS, Android, web. The natural language parsing is the best in the category ("buy milk tomorrow at 5pm" actually strips the date and time from the title). Sharing is real, with comments and assignment.

Pricing: free tier covers the basics; Pro is $4/month with the features most users actually want (reminders, themes, label colours). For a team, Business is $6/user/month.

The catch. Subscription forever. The free tier is genuinely usable but the premium nudges are constant. Todoist has also been slowly adding "smart" features that feel less like polish and more like upsell.

"I've been on Todoist for nine years and I keep almost leaving. Then I open Things 3 on my work Windows machine and remember why I stay."

• paraphrased from r/productivity, April 2026

For the head-to-head: Apple Reminders vs Todoist: Why People Switch Both Ways.

4. TickTick

Best for someone who wants tasks, habits, and a pomodoro timer in one app. TickTick is the kitchen-sink option done well. It has a calendar view, a habit tracker, a pomodoro timer, voice input, smart natural language, and cross-platform sync (Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, web). For people who'd otherwise run three apps, it consolidates.

Pricing: $35.99/year. There's a free tier but it's heavily limited (no calendar view, fewer reminders per task). At ~$3/month, it's the cheapest premium tier in the category.

The catch. The interface is dense. Coming from Apple Reminders, it feels cluttered. The habit tracker is functional but not best-in-class. The pomodoro timer is fine but if you already use Forest or Be Focused, it's redundant.

5. OmniFocus 4

Best for hardcore GTD practitioners who actually do weekly reviews. OmniFocus is the deepest task app on the Mac. Perspectives let you build any view of your data. Deferred dates separate "available" from "due." The forecast view is more powerful than the Reminders Today view by an order of magnitude. The review module walks you through every project on its review cycle.

Pricing: $74.99 standard or $99.99/year Pro. Pro adds perspectives (the killer feature), AppleScript automation, and web access via omnifocus.com.

The catch. The learning curve is real. Two to four weeks of serious investment before it pays off. Maintenance cost stays high forever. The capture loop is slower than Reminders+Siri.

For the deep comparison: Apple Reminders vs OmniFocus: When Power Becomes Friction (you're reading the wider listicle here).

6. GoodTask

Best for the person who wants Apple Reminders but with a real power-user UI. GoodTask is a third-party app that uses Apple Reminders as its database. Like Ultra Reminders, it doesn't replace; it adds a UI and feature layer on top. Smart lists are more powerful than Apple's. Quick actions are wired into the menu bar. Templates work better.

Pricing: $39.99 one-time on Mac. iOS sold separately at $9.99.

The catch. No AI. No brain-dump triage. The natural language parsing is identical to Apple's (because it uses Apple's). If you want AI features, Ultra Reminders is the closer match.

7. Notion

Best for people who want to rebuild their task system from scratch every six months. Notion is the database-as-task-app option. You can build literally any task workflow inside Notion, with custom properties, views, automations. The catch is you have to build it. And maintain it. And explain it to your team.

Pricing: free for individuals, $10/user/month for teams.

The catch. Everything. Notion is not a task app. It's a Lego set with which you can build a task app. The capture loop is bad. The mobile app is slow. Reminders/notifications are weak. Most people who try this regress to a real task app within a year.

"I built the perfect Notion task system and then realised I was spending more time on the system than the tasks."

• paraphrased from r/Notion, January 2026

For the head-to-head: Apple Reminders vs Notion for Tasks.

How we picked

We tested each app on macOS 26.1 and iOS 26.1 between February and April 2026, using a real workload (one cornerstone project with 40 tasks, two ongoing projects with 15-20 tasks each, plus daily admin and personal). We weighted speed of capture, friction of organisation, reliability of recurrence, sync correctness across devices, and total cost of ownership over three years. We deliberately ignored "feature count" because feature count is a trap.

Where we have a personal opinion, we've called it out. Things 3 is our favourite; Ultra Reminders is what most readers will get the most leverage from given they're already on Apple Reminders; OmniFocus is what we'd recommend if we knew you ran weekly reviews. The honest truth is most people are best served by sticking with Apple Reminders and adding one third-party layer, not by migrating fully.

For more on this thinking: 11 Hidden Apple Reminders Features You're Not Using, 9 Best AI To-Do Apps for Mac in 2026, 7 Best Reminder Apps with AI in 2026, and 13 Apple Reminders Limitations Power Users Hit for the gaps that drive people to alternatives in the first place. Wider context at Apple Reminders vs Every Major To-Do App in 2026.

FAQ

Q: Which alternative syncs back to Apple Reminders?

A: Two of the apps in this list use Apple Reminders as their source of truth: Ultra Reminders and GoodTask. Both read from and write to your existing iCloud account, so your iPhone, Apple Watch, and family-shared lists keep working. The other apps maintain their own database and require migration.

Q: Is there a free Apple Reminders alternative?

A: Todoist has a usable free tier. TickTick has a limited free tier. Notion is free for individuals. Apple Reminders itself is free. The premium tiers of Things 3, OmniFocus, GoodTask, and Ultra Reminders are paid. Ultra Reminders has a 14-day free trial with no credit card.

Q: Which has the best AI features?

A: Ultra Reminders for on-device AI (Qwen 3 1.7B, no data leaves your Mac). Todoist and TickTick have cloud-based AI features. Apple Reminders is gradually adding Apple Intelligence features (auto-categorisation, email-to-task) that work on supported devices. None of the others have meaningful AI yet.

Q: I want to leave Apple Reminders entirely. Which one?

A: Things 3 if you're staying in the Apple ecosystem and you want calm. Todoist if you need cross-platform. OmniFocus if you're a serious GTD practitioner. Avoid Notion unless you genuinely enjoy building systems.

Q: I want to keep Apple Reminders but add capability. Which one?

A: Ultra Reminders for AI features and advanced recurrence. GoodTask for a power-user UI without AI. Both sit on top of your existing iCloud setup, so the migration cost is zero.

Ultra Reminders solves a real shortlist instead of 47 apps with the same screenshots. Free 14-day trial at ultrareminders.com.